A UFO researcher wants to contact a trio of teenagers who reported a close encounter of the third kind in Devon 40 years ago this month.

Terry Hooper-Scharf, a naturalist and historian who runs the Anomalous Observational Phenomena Facebook Page, says the youngsters, who will now all be in their 50s, reported seeing a number of UFOs in the sky after leaving a youth club in Buckfastleigh - the Devon market town famous for producing the notoriously potent Buckfast Tonic Wine.

The three friends also reported seeing 'unidentified figures' on three occasions - and were said to have been left traumatised by the experience.

Terry said: "On the 3 October, 1978, three teenagers left a youth club in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The trio were given pseudonyms at the time of Shirley, Mark and Paul.

"Investigation procedures at the time as well as protocol on dealing with witnesses were not what they are today.